Notes · JapaneseUK · A-Levels

テクノロジーの影響 — Theme 2's intellectual-culture half (テーマ２・２)

This topic carries the second sub-theme of Edexcel's second theme, テーマ２：変わっていく文化, which is テクノロジーの影響, with its three aspects: テクノロジーの進歩, ロボット and オートメーション. It exists because Theme 2 in this specification is not simply the arts theme: the board sets it in the context of artistic culture past and present through 変わるポピュラー・カルチャー and in the context of INTELLECTUAL culture past and present through this sub-theme. That is a wider remit than the second theme of any other Edexcel language, and it is the single most commonly missed structural fact in the whole specification. The topic teaches the technology vocabulary the papers will use, treats the employment consequences of automation as the live argument they are, and carries this theme's exam-technique focus: earning the AO3 range mark deliberately, using Appendix 2's grammar list and Appendix 3's kanji list as production checklists rather than as reading lists.

5 sections~33 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 2 · Advanced 3

T·0777 / 12

Exam profile

AO1 · Understand and respond in writing to spoken Japanese about technology, work and daily lifeAO2 · Understand and respond in writing to written Japanese of technical and expository registerAO3 · Manipulate Japanese accurately, using a deliberately wide range of structures, vocabulary and kanjiAO4 · Show knowledge and understanding of, and respond critically to, technological change, robotics and automation in Japan

Operators:説明しなさい比べなさい分析しなさい評価しなさい論じなさい要約しなさい訳しなさい

basic level

At first-year standard the expectation is accurate description with a personal response: what technologies people use daily, what a robot does in a factory or a care home, what is convenient and what is worrying — with correct katakana, secure particles and a consistent register.

higher level

The full A-Level expects the employment and equity consequences argued rather than listed. Which effects of automation are documented and which are forecast? Whose forecast is it? Answers must attribute predictions to those who made them, distinguish labour shortage from labour displacement, and use a deliberately wide range of structures because 15 of every 45 marks on a Paper 2 essay come from range alone.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

テクノロジーの影響 — Theme 2's intellectual-culture half (テーマ２・２)

テクノロジーの進歩: the intellectual-culture half, and where the technology came from#

StandardPearson Edexcel 9JA0 テーマ２テクノロジーの影響 — テクノロジーの進歩Pearson Edexcel 9JA0 テーマ２ — set in the context of intellectual culture past and presentDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

Why automation is a Japanese argument before it is a global one

Fig. 1The chain that connects this sub-theme to Theme 3. In much international discussion, automation is framed as a threat to employment; in Japanese discussion it is at least as often framed as a response to a shrinking working-age population, which is a different argument with a different politics. The figure sets out that second framing so that it can be examined rather than assumed: each arrow is a claim, and the last one — that changed working practice follows from robotics — is the most contested of them. Node labels are held to four characters because the figure engine measures label width in code points while a kanji draws at roughly twice that width.

Say the structural fact out loud once, because it changes a revision plan. The specification sets テーマ２：変わっていく文化 in the context of artistic culture past and present, naming 変わるポピュラー・カルチャー, AND in the context of intellectual culture past and present, naming テクノロジーの影響. This topic is the second half. It means that a Paper 1 reading text, a Paper 2 translation and a Paper 3 recording drawn from Theme 2 may just as easily be about industrial robots as about manga, and that a candidate who prepared only the arts has prepared half a theme. The three aspects here are テクノロジーの進歩, ロボット and オートメーション, and each has its own vocabulary.

The historical material gives the aspect its past and present dimension and is worth a compact, dated paragraph. 高度経済成長[こうどけいざいせいちょう], the period of high growth from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, is when Japanese manufacturing and consumer technology became internationally visible; the household goods that spread in that period were popularly known as 三種の神器[さんしゅのじんぎ], the three sacred treasures. The 新幹線[しんかんせん] opened between Tokyo and Osaka in 1964, the year of the first Tokyo Olympic Games, and remains the standard example of Japanese infrastructure engineering. From the 1980s the 家電[かでん] and 半導体[はんどうたい] industries — domestic appliances and semiconductors — were central. These are dated, documented anchors, and one of them in an essay is worth a paragraph of adjectives.

The present-day vocabulary divides into two registers you should keep apart. The everyday register is largely katakana: スマートフォン, インターネット, アプリ, パソコン, ネット通販[つうはん] for online shopping, キャッシュレス. ガラケー is the colloquial term for the pre-smartphone Japanese feature phone, a compression of ガラパゴス携帯 and a good example of a coinage that carries an argument inside it. The policy register is largely 漢語: 情報化[じょうほうか], the spread of information technology; デジタル化[か]; 人工知能[じんこうちのう], the Japanese for AI, which coexists with the initialism; and 通信[つうしん] for telecommunications. Government policy has its own vocabulary: Society 5.0 is the name given to a technology-and-society vision in a national science and technology plan adopted in the mid-2010s, and a デジタル庁, Digital Agency, was established in 2021 to coordinate government digitalisation.

The analytical opportunity in this aspect is to distinguish invention from adoption. That a technology exists in Japan and that it is used in Japan are different claims with different evidence, and Japanese commentary itself makes the distinction constantly — the persistence of the 印鑑[いんかん] seal and of paper forms in administrative procedure has been an argument for years even as consumer technology advanced. So write it as a tension rather than as a story of progress: 日本は製造技術では先進的だと言われてきたが、行政手続きのデジタル化は遅れていると指摘されることも多い. Both halves are attributed, and the sentence is far more interesting than either half alone.

Worked example

Building a paragraph of argued Japanese about uneven technological adoption

From one bare observation — Japanese manufacturing technology is internationally well regarded, while administrative procedures long relied on paper and personal seals — build a paragraph of essay-register Japanese in about 150 characters.

State the first half with an attribution built in
日本の製造技術は、長い間、世界的に高く評価されてきた. ～てきた marks a reputation that has persisted up to now; 評価される is the passive, so no evaluator is named, which is honest because you are reporting a general reputation rather than a specific judgement. 世界的に is an adverb formed with 的 plus に, the productive suffix Appendix 2 lists for turning nouns into adjectives — a cheap and visible range mark.
Set the second half against it with a proper contrastive connective
その一方で、行政の手続きでは、長く紙の書類や印鑑が使われてきた. その一方で is on the other hand and is the written-register connective for a genuine counterweight; でも would be too light for an essay. Repeating ～てきた in the second sentence is deliberate parallelism rather than repetition, because the two clauses are being set against each other and the matching aspect makes the contrast audible.
Name the tension explicitly, in one sentence
つまり、技術を持っていることと、それを社会の仕組みに取り入れることは別の問題である. つまり is in other words and signals that you are about to state the point rather than add a fact. ～ことと～こととは別の問題である is a compact frame for distinguishing two things that are habitually confused, and it is worth memorising because it works in every topic in this specification. This is the sentence that turns two observations into an argument.
Add the recent change, without claiming it settled the matter
近年はデジタル化が進み、二〇二一年にはデジタル庁も設けられた. 進む is intransitive — digitalisation advanced, no agent — and 設けられる is the institutional passive, so the two verbs make different claims about agency in the same sentence. も on デジタル庁 quietly signals that this is one item in a larger movement. A date makes the sentence a fact rather than an impression, and dates are what the AO4 grid means by references from research findings.
Conclude with a hedge proportional to the evidence
ただし、制度や習慣が変わるには時間がかかるため、成果を評価するのはまだ早いだろう. ただし concedes a qualification without reversing the previous sentence. ～には…がかかる is it takes something to do something. 評価するのはまだ早い, it is too early to evaluate, is the honest conclusion when the change you have described is recent, and saying so is stronger than either praising or dismissing it.
Check registers, then endings, then length
Register check specific to this topic: デジタル化 and デジタル庁 are the policy register and are correct here; スマホ would not be. Endings: 評価されてきた, 使われてきた, である, 設けられた, 早いだろう — plain throughout, with three passives, which suits a paragraph about institutions rather than people. Length about 150 characters, roughly a quarter of a Section C answer.

Result: 日本の製造技術は、長い間、世界的に高く評価されてきた。その一方で、行政の手続きでは、長く紙の書類や印鑑が使われてきた。つまり、技術を持っていることと、それを社会の仕組みに取り入れることは別の問題である。近年はデジタル化が進み、二〇二一年にはデジタル庁も設けられた。ただし、制度や習慣が変わるには時間がかかるため、成果を評価するのはまだ早いだろう。

Typical mistakes

Revising Theme 2 as the arts theme and meeting robots for the first time in the paper.
Writing 技術が進んでいる with no example. One dated anchor turns a claim into an argument.
Mixing registers inside a sentence — スマホの情報化 reads oddly. Choose the katakana register or the 漢語 one.
Presenting Japanese technology as a single story of advance. The interesting answer is about uneven adoption.

Active revision

日本の技術の歴史について百五十字で書きなさい。年号を含む具体例を少なくとも二つ挙げること。そのうえで、「技術が進んでいる分野」と「導入が遅れている分野」を対比させた文を一つ作り、どちらの評価にも「～と言われている」「～と指摘されている」を使いなさい

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Japanese (9JA0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

ロボット: industry, care, and a cultural inheritance#

StandardPearson Edexcel 9JA0 テーマ２テクノロジーの影響 — ロボットPearson Edexcel 9JA0 Appendix 2 — ようになる; ～つつある; ～てくる and ～ていくDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

ロボット is named as an aspect in its own right, and the first move is to divide the word, because the papers will. 産業用[さんぎょうよう]ロボット are industrial robots on production lines, and Japan is conventionally described, on the standard international comparisons, as among the largest producers and users of them — a comparative claim you can make without a figure. サービスロボット are service robots; 介護[かいご]ロボット are assistive devices in care settings, from transfer aids to monitoring systems, which connects this aspect directly to Theme 3's 高齢化社会. 手術[しゅじゅつ]ロボット are surgical systems, 接客[せっきゃく]ロボット are those used in customer-facing roles, and 自律[じりつ] means autonomous. Naming the category before discussing the effects is what keeps an answer from sliding into generalities about robots.

The cultural inheritance is genuinely relevant and is one of the more interesting arguments available in Theme 2, precisely because it links the theme's two halves. Japanese popular culture has a long line of sympathetic robot characters, of which 鉄腕アトム[てつわんアトム], created by 手塚治虫 and first serialised in the early 1950s, is the standard reference, and 二足歩行[にそくほこう]ロボット, bipedal walking robots, have been a visible focus of Japanese corporate research, with Honda's ASIMO, first shown in 2000, the best-known example. The claim often built on those facts — that a friendlier cultural image of robots explains higher public acceptance in Japan — is an interesting hypothesis and is disputed by researchers, so present it as one: 日本ではロボットに対する抵抗が少ないのは文化的な背景によると説明されることがあるが、この説明には慎重な意見もある.

The care application deserves its own careful paragraph because it is where technology, demography and ethics meet, and it is the aspect most likely to appear in a Paper 3 Section B pairing. The case for: assistive devices can reduce the physical load on care workers, whose shortage is well documented, and monitoring can support people living alone. The case against, as argued by care professionals and by families: care is a relationship as well as a set of tasks, machines cannot substitute for presence, and equipment is expensive for facilities operating on tight margins. Neither position is fringe, and the Japanese for holding both is straightforward: 介護ロボットは職員の負担を軽くする一方で、人と人との関わりを置き換えることはできないという指摘もある.

The grammar this aspect demands is the grammar of gradual change, and Appendix 2 supplies four distinct tools that English collapses into one. ようになる marks arrival at a new state: 工場で使われるようになった. つつある marks a change in progress in formal register: 導入が進みつつある. ～てきた looks back from now: 少しずつ増えてきた. ～ていく looks forward from now: これからも広がっていくだろう. Using all four correctly in one answer is a visible range signal, and using ようになる four times is a visible absence of one. This is the concrete meaning of the AO3 grid's phrase, consistent variation in use of grammatical structures.

Worked example

One grammar decision, walked through: four ways of saying that something is changing

Appendix 2 lists ようになる, and the て-form plus くる and いく. Add つつある and you have four tools for change over time. Write four sentences about robots, one with each, and say why the others would be wrong in that slot.

ようになる: arrival at a new state
介護の現場でもロボットが使われるようになった. ようになる takes the plain form of a verb — here the passive 使われる — and says that a state which did not obtain now does. The past ようになった is the ordinary form because the arrival has already happened. Note that ようになる cannot describe a gradual increase in degree; for that you need one of the other three. Its negative is ようになる with a negative verb, 使われなくなった, which says the practice ceased — a very useful form and one candidates rarely produce.
つつある: a change in progress, and firmly written register
工場での導入が進みつつある. つつある attaches to the ます-stem and describes a process under way at the moment of writing. It is a formal, written form — you will meet it constantly in newspaper prose and almost never in conversation — which makes it a high-value item for an essay and a poor choice for a dialogue. It also implies direction without implying completion, so it is the honest form for a trend you can see but cannot yet call finished.
～てきた: change looking back from now
ロボットの価格は少しずつ下がってきた. くる after the て-form carries the change up to the present moment, which is why it so often translates an English present perfect. 少しずつ, little by little, sits naturally with it. Compare 下がった, which reports a completed drop without connecting it to now, and 下がっている, which reports a current state. The three are genuinely different, and choosing among them deliberately is the sort of thing an examiner notices.
～ていく: change looking forward from now
これからも、人手不足の分野では自動化が広がっていくだろう. いく after the て-form projects the change forward, which is why it pairs so naturally with これから and with だろう. Appendix 2 gives exactly this example pattern — これからも増えていくでしょう — so it is explicitly on the production list. Using ていく where the sentence looks to the future and てくる where it looks to the past is one of the clearest signals of control in Japanese aspect.
Now test each slot by substitution
Put つつある into the first sentence: 使われつつある would say the practice is in the course of being adopted, which is weaker than the intended claim that it now happens. Put ようになる into the second: 進むようになった would say that advancing began to happen, which is odd because 進む is already a process. Put ていく into the third: 下がっていく would point the price drop into the future, contradicting 少しずつ…てきた. Substitution is the fastest way to feel a distinction that a definition only describes.
Then check that you have not used one form four times
The AO3 range grid's top band asks for consistent variation in the use of grammatical structures, and aspect is the easiest place to demonstrate it because every paragraph about change needs it. Read your answer and count how many of your change-verbs are ようになった. If the answer is all of them, you have written an accurate essay that will be capped by the range grid, and the repair costs nothing: change one to つつある, one to てきた and one to ていく, and the meaning improves as well as the mark.

Result: 介護の現場でもロボットが使われるようになった。／工場での導入が進みつつある。／ロボットの価格は少しずつ下がってきた。／これからも、人手不足の分野では自動化が広がっていくだろう。 The four tools: ようになる for arrival at a new state, つつある for a process under way in written register, ～てきた for change carried up to now, ～ていく for change projected forward. English says is changing for all four, which is exactly why they have to be chosen consciously.

Typical mistakes

Writing about robots without saying which kind. The industrial and the care arguments have almost nothing in common.
Asserting that Japanese culture explains robot acceptance. It is a hypothesis researchers argue about.
Quoting a robot-density statistic from memory. The comparative claim is defensible; the number is not.
Using ようになる for every change. It marks arrival at a state; つつある, てきた and ていく say different things.

Active revision

ロボットの種類を三つ挙げ、それぞれについて日本語で六十字の説明を書きなさい。そのうえで、介護ロボットの利点と問題点を一文ずつ書き、必ず「一方で」を使うこと。最後に、「ようになる」「つつある」「てきた」「ていく」の四つをそれぞれ一度ずつ使った文を作りなさい

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Japanese (9JA0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

オートメーション: labour shortage, displacement, and the difference between them#

AdvancedPearson Edexcel 9JA0 テーマ２テクノロジーの影響 — オートメーションPearson Edexcel 9JA0 Paper 1 Section A — translation into EnglishDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

The grammar of change and consequence

Fig. 2Eight structures from Appendix 2 and its neighbourhood, each with a model phrase and the claim it lets you make. This is a production checklist rather than a reference table: the AO3 range grid awards 15 of the 45 marks on every Paper 2 essay, and range is demonstrated by using several of these in one answer rather than one of them repeatedly. The emphasised cell is 一方で, because it is the single structure that converts a list of effects into a weighed argument, and because an answer that never uses it almost always reads as one-sided.

オートメーション is the third aspect, and the analytical distinction that must be made first is between two arguments that use the same evidence. In much international discussion, automation is framed as displacement: machines take jobs that people were doing. In Japanese discussion it is at least as often framed as substitution under shortage: machines do work for which there are not enough people, because the working-age population is falling. Those are different claims with different politics, and both are made in Japan. An answer that notices the difference is immediately analytical: 自動化は雇用を奪うという議論がある一方で、日本では人手不足を補う手段として語られることも多い.

The vocabulary is specific and largely 漢語, which makes it good AO3 material. 自動化[じどうか] is automation; 省力化[しょうりょくか] is labour-saving, a word that already encodes the shortage framing; 無人[むじん] means unmanned, as in 無人レジ, unstaffed checkouts, alongside the katakana セルフレジ; 自動運転[じどううんてん] is autonomous driving; 効率[こうりつ] is efficiency and 生産性[せいさんせい] productivity. On the employment side: 単純作業[たんじゅんさぎょう] is routine work, 再教育[さいきょういく] or リスキリング is retraining, and 雇用[こよう] is employment, the same word that carries Theme 3. Notice how much of this vocabulary is shared with 社会 topics — that overlap is why Paper 3's synoptic Section B can pair a technology recording with an employment text.

Forecasts must be attributed, always, and this is the aspect where candidates most often forget. Claims that a given share of jobs will be automated within a given period come from named studies with stated methods and contested assumptions, and reproducing such a figure from memory in an examination is exactly the kind of unverifiable number these notes never use. What you can say safely is directional and attributed: ある研究では、定型的な作業ほど自動化されやすいと予測されている。ただし、予測の前提によって結果は大きく変わる. That second clause — the result depends heavily on the assumptions — is itself a piece of analysis and will read far better than a confident percentage.

The strongest available argument in this aspect concerns which workers are affected, because it connects to everything else in the specification. Routine tasks are the most automatable, routine tasks are disproportionately performed by non-regular workers, and non-regular workers have the least access to employer-funded retraining — so the effect of automation is not evenly distributed even when its net effect on employment is neutral. Every link in that chain is arguable and none of it requires a statistic: 自動化の影響は、雇用全体の数よりも、誰がその影響を受けるかという点にあらわれるのではないか. That single sentence, properly built, is worth more than a paragraph of general enthusiasm or general alarm.

Worked example

Paper 1 Section A worked sentence by sentence: a passage on automation and shortage

Translate this passage into English. 人手不足が深刻になるにつれて、自動化を進める企業が増えてきた。無人のレジやロボットによる配送は、以前は珍しかったが、今では地方の店でも見かけるようになった。ただし、こうした技術がどの仕事を置き換えるのかについては、まだ十分に議論されていない。

Find the three final predicates, then translate
増えてきた, 見かけるようになった, 議論されていない. That gives you the arc at once: a rise up to now, an arrival at a new state, and something not yet done. Readings: 人手不足[ひとでぶそく], 深刻[しんこく], 自動化[じどうか], 配送[はいそう], 珍しい[めずらしい], 地方[ちほう], 見かける[みかける], 置き換える[おきかえる], 十分[じゅうぶん], 議論[ぎろん].
Sentence 1: につれて is proportional, and ～てきた is a perfect
人手不足が深刻になるにつれて、自動化を進める企業が増えてきた. につれて requires the plain non-past before it even when the English is a past — as the shortage has become more serious — so 深刻になるにつれて is correct and 深刻になったにつれて is not. 自動化を進める企業 is a relative clause: firms that are advancing automation. 増えてきた is has increased, carried up to now. English: As the labour shortage has become more serious, the number of firms pressing ahead with automation has grown.
Sentence 2, first half: two noun phrases coordinated with や, and による
無人のレジやロボットによる配送は. 無人の attaches to レジ with の because 無人 is a noun; unstaffed checkouts. や coordinates non-exhaustively — X and Y among others — which English can carry with such as or simply and. ロボットによる配送 is delivery by robot, using による as the noun-modifying form of によって. The whole is one subject with は. Watch that you do not read 無人 as modifying both nouns: の binds it to レジ only.
Sentence 2, second half: a contrast between two times, and ようになる
以前は珍しかったが、今では地方の店でも見かけるようになった. 以前は and 今では are a deliberate pair, both carrying は for contrast. 珍しかった is the past of an い-adjective. 見かける is to catch sight of, a different verb from 見る and worth rendering as see or come across. ようになった gives the arrival at a new state. でも on 地方の店 is even in, which carries the point of the sentence: not only in cities. English: these were once unusual, but they can now be seen even in shops in rural areas.
Sentence 3: an embedded question as a topic, and a negative passive
こうした技術がどの仕事を置き換えるのかについては、まだ十分に議論されていない. どの仕事を置き換えるのか is an embedded question — which jobs they will replace — packaged with のか and then made the topic by については. まだ…ていない is not yet, and it must pair with a negative. 議論されていない is the passive of 議論する with ている, negated: has not yet been sufficiently discussed. Note that the agent is again unstated, which English handles with a passive.
Read it back, then count the chunks
As the labour shortage has become more serious, the number of firms pressing ahead with automation has grown. Unstaffed checkouts and delivery by robot were once unusual, but they can now be seen even in shops in rural areas. However, there has not yet been sufficient discussion of which jobs such technologies will replace. The scoring decisions: につれて, the relative clause 自動化を進める, ～てきた, 無人の binding to レジ only, や as non-exhaustive, による, the 以前は and 今では contrast, でも as even, ようになった, the embedded question with のか, については, and まだ with a negative — twelve of them.

Result: As the labour shortage has become more serious, the number of firms pressing ahead with automation has grown. Unstaffed checkouts and delivery by robot were once unusual, but they can now be seen even in shops in rural areas. However, there has not yet been sufficient discussion of which jobs such technologies will replace.

Typical mistakes

Quoting a share of jobs at risk of automation. The figure varies enormously by study and assumption.
Treating automation as unambiguously a threat, or unambiguously a solution. Both framings are current in Japan.
Ignoring the distributional question. Net employment effects and distributional effects are different things.
Using セルフレジ and 無人レジ as if one were more correct. Both are in use; the katakana one is more colloquial.

Active revision

自動化について二百字で書きなさい。（一）「雇用を奪う」という議論と「人手不足を補う」という議論の両方を示すこと、（二）予測を引用する場合は必ず「ある研究では～と予測されている」の形にすること、（三）数字を使わずに「～ほど…されやすい」を使って傾向を示すこと

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Japanese (9JA0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

技術と社会: who gets left out, and what that has to do with the other themes#

AdvancedPearson Edexcel 9JA0 テーマ２テクノロジーの影響 — テクノロジーの進歩／オートメーションPearson Edexcel 9JA0 Paper 1 Section B — reading comprehension, questions set and answered in EnglishDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

The three aspects of this sub-theme all run into a single social question — who is included in a technological change and who is not — and it is the question that connects Theme 2 to the rest of the specification. 情報格差[じょうほうかくさ] and the katakana デジタルデバイド both name the gap between those with access and skills and those without. It has three usual dimensions in Japanese discussion: age, since older users may have less experience with new interfaces; region, since network and service provision differ between metropolitan and rural areas; and household resources, which decide whether a family has devices and connections at all. Note how neatly those map onto Theme 3's 高齢化社会 and 地方, and onto Theme 1's 教育格差 — the specification's themes are designed to interlock, and an essay that shows the interlock is doing what synoptic assessment means.

The privacy and trust material is real and should be handled with the usual attribution discipline. 個人情報[こじんじょうほう] is personal data, 保護[ほご] is protection, 監視[かんし] is surveillance, and 顔認証[かおにんしょう] is facial recognition. マイナンバー is the individual number system introduced in the mid-2010s, and its take-up and uses have been continuously debated in Japan, with arguments about administrative efficiency on one side and about data concentration and consent on the other. Present it as an argument in progress rather than as a settled policy, and note that arrangements change: 制度の内容は変わりつつあるため、最新の情報を確認する必要がある.

SNS deserves a note of its own because it is a false friend. In Japanese, SNS is the ordinary general term for social media — ソーシャル・ネットワーキング・サービス — and it is used where English would say social media, not only for what English calls a social network. A candidate who writes social networking service in an English answer has translated the letters rather than the meaning. On the substance, the vocabulary you need is 炎上[えんじょう] for an online pile-on, 誹謗中傷[ひぼうちゅうしょう] for abusive attacks, 匿名[とくめい] for anonymity, and 拡散[かくさん]する for content spreading. These connect directly to Theme 1's いじめ aspect, where ネットいじめ is named.

This section carries a second run at Paper 1 Section B, because technology texts are among the likeliest sources for it and because the rule bears repeating: Section B's questions are set in English and answered in English, while everything in Paper 3 Section B is set in Japanese and answered in Japanese. The specific reading skill technology texts demand is handling katakana you have not met. You will not have a dictionary. But katakana is phonetic, so sounding a word out will often recover an English original — オンライン, セキュリティー, プラットフォーム — and where it does not, the surrounding Japanese usually defines it, because Japanese expository writing habitually glosses a loanword on first use with という or とは. Learn to look for that gloss rather than stopping at the unknown word.

Worked example

Paper 1 Section B: an inference question on a technology text, answered in English

The text contains this passage. ある自治体は、高齢者向けにスマートフォンの使い方を教える講座を始めた。担当者は、機械が苦手だから使わないのではなく、必要だと感じる機会がなかったのだと話している。実際、家族と写真を送り合うようになってから、毎日使うようになった参加者も少なくないという。 The question, in English, is: What does the official suggest is the main reason some older people had not used smartphones? Answer in English.

Classify the question: it asks for a suggestion, not a statement
The verb in the question is suggests, which means the answer may not be stated flatly in the text — it may be carried by a construction. That is a signal to read the grammar rather than to hunt for a noun. Section B mixes multiple-choice with open-response, and inference questions are where the open-response marks concentrate, so slowing down here is a good use of the recommended 45 minutes.
Find the construction that carries the whole answer
機械が苦手だから使わないのではなく、必要だと感じる機会がなかったのだ. The frame is ～のではなく、～のだ: it is not that A, it is that B. That single construction contains the official's entire point — the reason is not lack of aptitude but lack of occasion. Recognising ～のではなく as a correction of a presumed explanation, rather than as a simple negative, is what turns a rough reading into a precise one, and it is exactly the kind of thing the AO2 grid means by inferring meaning from complex written material.
Read the supporting sentence and check it agrees
実際、家族と写真を送り合うようになってから、毎日使うようになった参加者も少なくないという. 実際 introduces evidence for the claim just made. 送り合う is the reciprocal form — send to each other — built from the ます-stem plus 合う, and it is worth recognising. ようになってから is since coming to do something. The sentence supports the occasion explanation: once there was a reason, use followed. It does not introduce a new reason, so it does not change your answer; it confirms it.
Notice the hedge at the very end, and decide whether it matters
少なくないという. The final という attributes the whole sentence to the official rather than asserting it as the writer's own finding, and 少なくない is a double negative meaning quite a few. Neither changes the answer to this question, but both are worth registering, because a different question — how confident is the writer about the outcome — would turn entirely on them. Reading the sentence-final apparatus is not optional in Japanese; it is where the writer's stance lives.
Write one English sentence that answers exactly what was asked
That they had simply never had a reason or an occasion to use one, rather than that they found the technology difficult. Twenty-two words, it answers suggests by giving the official's contrast, and it includes the rejected explanation because the text's own construction is built on rejecting it. An answer that gave only they had no reason would be correct but thinner; an answer that translated all three sentences would show reading and not answering.
Guard against the two standard failures
First, do not import an explanation the text does not give — nothing here says anything about cost or about eyesight, and adding it is inventing evidence. Second, do not answer in Japanese: this is Paper 1 Section B, and its answers are written in English. If you find yourself drafting in Japanese because that is the language you have been reading in, write the answer in English and then check that it is a sentence an English reader could understand without the text in front of them.

Result: Model answer, in English as required: That they had simply never had a reason or an occasion to use one, rather than that they found the technology difficult. The method: classify the question as an inference question; find the ～のではなく…のだ frame that carries the correction; check the supporting sentence and the sentence-final attribution; and answer in one English sentence that includes the rejected explanation, because the text's own structure depends on it.

Typical mistakes

Treating the digital divide as purely an age question. Region and household resources matter at least as much.
Rendering SNS literally in an English answer. Japanese uses it where English says social media.
Stopping at an unfamiliar katakana word instead of sounding it out or looking for its gloss.
Writing the Paper 1 Section B answers in Japanese. They are answered in English.

Active revision

情報格差の三つの側面（年齢・地域・家庭の資源）について、それぞれ日本語で六十字ずつ書きなさい。そのうえで、テーマ１の「教育格差」またはテーマ３の「高齢化社会」と結びつける文を一つ作り、「～と同じように」「～にも共通している」のいずれかを使いなさい

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Japanese (9JA0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

Earning the AO3 range mark deliberately#

AdvancedPearson Edexcel 9JA0 Paper 2 — range of grammatical structures and vocabulary (AO3), 15 marks per essayPearson Edexcel 9JA0 Appendix 2 — grammar list; Appendix 3 — kanji listDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

This is the topic's exam-technique focus and it is worth stating in mark terms first, because the arithmetic surprises people. Each Paper 2 essay is marked by three grids: critical and analytical response (AO4) out of 20, range of grammatical structures and vocabulary (AO3) out of 15, and accuracy of language (AO3) out of 10. So range alone is 15 of 45 on each essay, 30 of the paper's 90 essay marks, and Paper 2 is 30 per cent of the qualification. Paper 1 Section C and Paper 3 Section B each fold range into a combined accuracy-and-range grid out of 10. Range is not a stylistic nicety attached to good content; it is a separately assessed, separately banded thing, and it is the one part of the mark scheme you can prepare for mechanically.

The grid's wording tells you exactly what it wants. The bottom band says limited variation of straightforward grammatical structures with much repetition, and the top band says consistent variation in use of grammatical structures, consistent variation in use of vocabulary and kanji. The operative word in both is variation. It is not asking for difficulty — a correctly used ～てから earns range as surely as a mangled ～ざるを得ない loses accuracy — it is asking that you not do the same thing repeatedly. So the preparation is a checklist, not a hunt for rare forms, and the checklist is Appendix 2, which is the board's own published list of what it expects you to be able to use.

Build the checklist in five groups and aim to touch each group once per essay. Group one, aspect and change: ようになる, つつある, ～てくる, ～ていく. Group two, cause and consequence: ため, によって, につれて, ので, おかげで. Group three, concession and contrast: 一方で, のに, ても, とはいえ, にもかかわらず. Group four, stance and hedging: だろう, かもしれない, はずだ, とは限らない, のではないか, と考えられる. Group five, structure-building: relative clauses, nominalisation with こと and の, embedded questions with か and かどうか, and the passive and causative. Five groups, one item each, and an essay has demonstrated variation across every dimension the grid names.

Vocabulary and kanji variation are the other half of the same grid, and both are cheaper to improve than candidates expect. For vocabulary, the fix is synonym rotation within a paragraph: 増える, 拡大する, 広がる and 伸びる are not interchangeable but they are all available, and an essay that writes 増える six times is announcing a small vocabulary. For kanji, the AO3 grids in all three papers say the same sentence — students are rewarded for using a wide variety of kanji — so the theme-by-theme production lists in the grammar topic are directly worth marks. Just remember the asymmetry from that topic: write kanji you are certain of, because a wrong kanji costs accuracy from a different grid than the one it was meant to earn range in.

Worked example

Raising the range of a flat but accurate paragraph, without changing its content

This paragraph is accurate and says something true, but it would be capped by the range grid. 自動化が進んでいます。工場でロボットが使われています。人手不足が続いています。だから会社は自動化を進めています。でも仕事がなくなる心配もあります。政府は対策を考えています。Raise its range without adding any new information.

Diagnose before rewriting: count what is repeated
Six sentences. Five of them end in ています or います. Two use 進む. Every connective is either だから or でも, both of which are spoken register. There is no concession beyond でも, no hedging at all, no subordinate clause, no passive that carries a real choice, and no nominalisation. The paragraph is accurate — nothing in it is wrong — which is precisely why it illustrates the point: accuracy and range are marked by different grids, and this would score respectably on one and poorly on the other.
Fix the register first, because it is free
Convert to だ・である体: 進んでいる, 使われている, 続いている, 進めている, ある, 考えている. This changes no content and costs no risk, and it opens the plain-register connectives the next steps need — そのため, 一方で, とはいえ, ～だろう — none of which sits comfortably in です・ます. Register conversion is the first move in every range repair because it unlocks the vocabulary that does the rest.
Combine sentences with subordination, which is what range mainly means
人手不足が続いているため、多くの企業が自動化を進めている. Two sentences become one, joined by ため, and the causal relation that だから stated flatly is now built into the structure. Then: 工場ではロボットが使われるようになり、単純作業の一部は機械に置き換えられつつある. That merges two of the remaining sentences using ようになり as a stem-chain and adds つつある — an aspect form the original had no room for. Nothing new has been asserted; the same facts are now carried by grammar.
Add concession, because the original had only でも
一方で、仕事が減るのではないかという不安も残っている. 一方で replaces でも with a written-register counterweight; のではないか converts the flat statement of worry into the hedged proposition it actually is; and ～という packages the whole preceding clause as the content of the 不安. This one sentence touches the concession group and the stance group from the checklist at once, which is the sort of efficiency worth building deliberately.
Add stance to the closing sentence, and vary the vocabulary
政府も対策を検討しているが、効果が表れるまでには時間がかかるだろう. 検討する replaces 考える, which is a straight synonym upgrade into the policy register; も signals that the government joins an existing movement; ～までには is the deadline particle from the grammar topic; だろう supplies the hedge the paragraph entirely lacked. Now count verbs of increase or advance across the whole paragraph: 進める appears once, 置き換えられる once, 残る once, 検討する once. No repetition.
Check what you have touched against the five groups
Aspect: ようになり, つつある. Cause: ため. Concession: 一方で, が. Stance: のではないか, だろう. Structure-building: the relative-ish modifier 仕事が減るのではないかという, the passive 置き換えられる, the ます-stem chain. All five groups, in six lines, with no new content and no rare forms. That is what the range grid is asking for, and it took four deliberate edits rather than a larger vocabulary.

Result: 人手不足が続いているため、多くの企業が自動化を進めている。工場ではロボットが使われるようになり、単純作業の一部は機械に置き換えられつつある。一方で、仕事が減るのではないかという不安も残っている。政府も対策を検討しているが、効果が表れるまでには時間がかかるだろう。 Same facts, four sentences instead of six, and every one of the five checklist groups represented: aspect (ようになり, つつある), cause (ため), concession (一方で, が), stance (のではないか, だろう) and structure (the passive, the stem-chain, the という package).

Typical mistakes

Hunting for rare and difficult forms. The grid asks for variation, not for difficulty, and a mangled rare form costs accuracy.
Writing a whole essay in ～ました or in ～だ with no aspect, no concession and no hedging.
Repeating one verb of increase throughout an essay about change. Synonym rotation is the cheapest range mark there is.
Assuming good content will carry the range mark. It is a separate grid with its own bands and its own descriptors.

Active revision

自分が書いた日本語の文章を一つ選び、次の五つの組それぞれから少なくとも一つの表現が使われているかを確認しなさい。（一）相の変化、（二）原因と結果、（三）譲歩と対比、（四）判断の強さ、（五）構文の組み立て。足りない組があれば、その組の表現を使って一文を書き加えなさい。そのうえで、同じ動詞を三回以上使っていないかも点検しなさい

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Japanese (9JA0) specification (Pearson Edexcel)

References & sources

Sources

Pearson Edexcel

Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Japanese (9JA0) specification

テクノロジーの影響 — Theme 2's intellectual-culture half (テーマ２・２)

5 sections~33 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 2 · Advanced 3

技術と社会: who gets left out, and what that has to do with the other themes#

Advanced

Pearson Edexcel 9JA0 テーマ２テクノロジーの影響 — テクノロジーの進歩／オートメーション

Pearson Edexcel 9JA0 Paper 1 Section B — reading comprehension, questions set and answered in English

DfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

テクノロジーの影響 — Theme 2's intellectual-culture half (テーマ２・２)

Key points

Building a paragraph of argued Japanese about uneven technological adoption

Key points

One grammar decision, walked through: four ways of saying that something is changing

Key points

Paper 1 Section A worked sentence by sentence: a passage on automation and shortage

Key points

Paper 1 Section B: an inference question on a technology text, answered in English

Key points

Raising the range of a flat but accurate paragraph, without changing its content

Sources

テクノロジーの影響 — Theme 2's intellectual-culture half (テーマ２・２)

Key points

Building a paragraph of argued Japanese about uneven technological adoption

Key points

One grammar decision, walked through: four ways of saying that something is changing

Key points

Paper 1 Section A worked sentence by sentence: a passage on automation and shortage

Key points

Paper 1 Section B: an inference question on a technology text, answered in English

Key points

Raising the range of a flat but accurate paragraph, without changing its content

Sources